. What class was that? _The
Poor._

Whilst in poverty himself, his soul was kept free from envy by noting
the unremitting devotedness, the indefatigable sacrifices of
hard-working families--a devotedness, he assures us, not even exhausted
in the immolation of one life, but often continued from one to another
for several generations.

The two families from which he descended were originally peasants. These
families being very large, many of his father's and mother's brothers
and sisters would not marry, in order that they might the better
contribute to the education of some of the boys, whom they sent to
college. This was a sacrifice of which he was early made aware, and
which he never forgot. His grandfather, a music-master of Laon, came to
Paris with his little savings after the Reign of Terror, where his son,
the author's father, was employed at the _Imprimerie des Assignats_. His
little wealth was made over to the same son, and all was invested in a
printing-office. To facilitate the arrangement, a brother and a sister
of the eldest son would not marry, but the latter espoused a sober
damsel of Ardennes. M. Michelet, the child of this industrious pair, was
born in the year 1798 in the choir of a church of nuns, then occupied by
the printing-office. "Occupied, I say, but not profaned; for what is the
Press in modern times but the holy ark?"

The printing-office, prosperous at first, fed by the debates of the
assemblies and the news of the armies, was overthrown in 1800 by the
general suppression of the newspapers. The printer was allowed to
publish only an ecclesiastical journal; and even this sanction was
withdrawn in favour of a priest whom Napoleon thought safe, but was
mistaken. The family of M. Michelet was ruined. They had but one
resource; it was to print for their creditors a few works belonging to
the printer. They had no longer any journeymen; they did the work
themselves. The father, who was occupied with his employment abroad,
could render no assistance, but the mother, though sick, turned binder,
cut and folded. The child--the future historian--was the compositor; the
grandfather, very old and feeble, betook himself to the hard work of
the press, and printed with his palsied hands.

The young compositor, at twelve years of age, knew four words of Latin
which he had picked up from an old bookseller, who had been a village
teacher, and doted on grammar. The scene of the lad's labors--his
workshop--was